The Return
by CullenLove002
Summary: Picking up from Bella's call to Rose on Isle Esme, Bella's POV. If I get good enough reviews I might continue it till Jacob comes for the first time. Review a LOT please!
1. Chapter 1

I hung up with Rosalie as I watched Edward turn away from the boat, and set the phone right back down where it was. I took a deep breath and patted my stomach gently. "Don't you worry, we're going to be fine." I whispered. Edward was through the door within a second, and his arms were suddenly around me, holding me secure. His hands rubbed my arms and he kissed me forehead.

"How do you feel?" he asked, pulling back to look into my eyes. I looked back into his, and saw nothing but concern for me. There was nothing left for his baby.

"I'm fine," I choked out, and looked down so that my eyes wouldn't betray how I really felt. The way he'd called our baby _it_. He thought that our baby would hurt me. What had Carlisle told him? I knew what the little woman had thought… but that couldn't be completely true, could it?

Edward tipped my chin up, but I kept my eyes down. "Bella," I swallowed but didn't respond, "Bella, everything will be absolutely fine, I promise you." I just nodded. He sighed and took me into another embrace, and for the moment I just pretended that it was a moment of happiness and not fear. I held him closer to me, willing myself to breath evenly.

"We should get going," he whispered into my hair, and pulled me toward the boat by the hand.

This ride in the boat was longer than when we had come, Edward didn't want too much motion of the boat to make me sick again, so he drove maddeningly slow, even I was gritting my teeth over it. I sat with my hands in my lap as I shed a few tears for the island. I couldn't believe we were leaving already, it was heart breaking to see it shrink into the distance. A part of me, a huge part of me, wanted to stay and never leave. But I knew that if this baby were going to be safe, and was going to grow and be healthy, we had to leave. And I knew that we had to leave eventually, but I had been counting on another two weeks with the warm sun.

My time with Edward on the island had been the very best of my life. The days spent at the beach, no matter how much I'd rather have been in the big white house engaging in other activities at that point, had been so perfect, it was hard to believe – away from the island – that it was real. I was going to miss not having to hide, with Edward in the sunlight. We'd watched the sun sets, we'd hiked through the most unbelievable of tropical forests, swam in the crystal clear water at midnight, and we'd explored parts of each other that had been kept to a limit before. I continued to cry small tears as I realized that this might be the last time I see the island in a very long time.

"Bella!" Edward heard me crying, and abruptly stopped to boat to reach out to me. "What's wrong, sweetheart, is something to matter? Does anything hurt?" he fretted as he pulled me up to his arms.

"No, no," I said just above a whisper, "I'm just sad to be leaving," I looked up to see his gold eyes smolder just the tiniest bit.

"We can come back someday, if you'd like," he offered. I just nodded.

"We should keep going, or we'll miss our flight," he agreed, and turned to drive the boat.

The taxi ride through Rio was hell, the driver had an uncanny ability to drive so jerkily, that each time he touched the gas, or the break, my stomach wanted to jump out of my mouth. Edward had growled at the driver in a very impolite fashion multiple times, but the driver didn't seem to be bothered. I figured that he'd been complained to many times about his driving. The plane rides were comfortable and smooth in Edward's arms. We didn't speak much, but every twenty minutes or so he asked how I was feeling, I'd been able to give him a quick 'fine' each time. I fidgeted the whole time though, curious as to what awaited us at home. I wasn't afraid of him, not at all. But I was worried, about what he planned to do, and I was worried about how he would react when he figured out what I wanted.

The whole family was waiting for us at the Seattle airport. Carlisle and Esme, Alice and Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie, all had worry plastered on their faces. Rosalie took a step forward at the same time Carlisle did – who stopped abruptly when he saw her move. I slipped easily out of the comfort of Edward's arms, and walked quickly into Rosalie's waiting arms. I heard everyone suck in a breath at the embrace.

"Bella?" Edward was quick to come to my side and touched my shoulder. Rosalie hissed slightly and pulled me from his hand. His eyes were wide as he stood frozen. "What –"

"We're not going to let you kill the baby," Rosalie said flatly, "Bella wants to keep it." I searched his eyes, but he only looked confused.

"Bella?" he asked again and took a step forward, but Rosalie pulled me a step back. His face turned from confused to a little angry, "Rosalie, what are you doing?" No one behind us dared to move.

"Edward I… I…" I couldn't seem to get the words out.

"She wants to keep the baby, Edward. You cannot kill it. As long as that is your intention, there are going to be some boundaries." Rosalie hissed again. I wanted to tell her to be easy on him, because I didn't want him to be hurting. My mouth was open, but nothing was coming out.

"Bella, what is she talking about?" Edward asked me again.

"I… I want to keep the baby. I do," his eyes widened in shock. "I love him, Edward," I whispered. He was frozen in front of me, like he had been in the bath room on the island. Carlisle was standing next to me in the next second.

"Bella, this fetus is half vampire. It could be dangerous. You could get hurt." He warned me,

I winced once, but drew a breath and said, "I understand," in a calm voice. I held my hand to my stomach and felt my nudger kick me once.

"Bella," Edward whispered, still shocked.

"Edward," I reached my hand out to his, it was still outstretched. I held it and pulled him to me slightly. Rosalie hissed , "Please?" I turned to her. She glared at Edward, but nodded and let me move closer to him. "Edward, this is what I want." I held his hand between my own, and supported it between out chests.

"Bella, it will kill you," his eyes bore into mine.

I shook my head, "He won't,"

"It will grow stronger, you will get hurt." I shook my head again, "The woman, the legends say that the mothers all d –" his voice broke on the word, and couldn't get it out.

I flinched again, "I'll be alright. I love this baby as much as I love you. I love you _so_ much," I kissed the palm of his hand. "Let's go home, we can talk more." I suggested when he didn't say anything. I followed behind the rest of our family, Rosalie had her arm around me, and I pulled Edward – still staring into space – by the hand. I sat with Rosalie and Emmett in the backseat, while Edward and Carlisle took the front.

The ride home was silent. I began shaking a little once we'd gotten out of Seattle, but I wasn't cold. I was worried. Edward and Carlisle were so sure that I would get hurt, and the little woman had believed that I would die. _Edward _believed that my baby would kill me. But it wasn't exactly myself I was worried for. I couldn't die, not now. There were two things in this world that it would be worse than sin to leave behind. I would not leave Edward, and I could not leave my baby without a mother.

Emmett took my hand and rubbed the back with his thumb. He didn't say anything, but the gesture was so kind and comforting that I turned around and gave him as much of a hug as I could while buckled in the car. He chuckled a little and returned the embrace. It was then, that I decided that I had too much to live for. I would not die. I would keep my heart beating till my baby was born. And if I got close, I would make sure that my baby was out, and Edward could change me within the hour.

At some point during the ride, I fell to sleep against Emmett's shoulder. I didn't know how much later it was that I felt my big brother's arms around my body, pulling me out of the car. "Don't wake up," he whispered. I almost laughed, as if telling me not to wake up would actually prevent me from doing so. I kept my eyes closed, because I _was_ exhausted. I hadn't slept from the island all the way to Seattle, and I was completely spent. I hit the cushions before I'd realized we were even in the house, and I felt a cool hand brush my cheek. A blanket was thrown over me to keep me from shivering, and I yawned.

I was half asleep, but I could hear them speaking in hushed tones.

"Rosalie, what the hell are you thinking? She is going to get hurt, this _thing_ is going to kill her!" I heard Edward growl.

"She'll live, Edward. Calm down. She called me before you both left and asked me to help her. You want to kill a _baby, _Edward."

"Because it is going to kill my wife, Rose." He snarled back at her.

"Edward," Carlisle's voice cautioned, "Rosalie, he is right. We do not know how this will turn out for Bella, and all things considering, she is the priority here."

"She wants this baby, Carlisle. This is her choice."

"Alice, do you have any idea what the outcome will be if we leave this be?" Carlisle said.

I heard Alice groan, "I can't see exactly, Edward is dead set on getting it out right now, and Bella wants to keep it. She's going to rough it out. Everything is mixed up in one big mess."

"What do you mean, 'rough it out'?"Esme's voice asked.

"There isn't just a possibility that the fetus will grow stronger. It will, and I'm seeing a ninety percent chance that it will hurt her. But she won't die… as far as I can tell. I can only see ahead about fifteen hours."

"It's growing, quickly. I should help Emmett and Jasper with research. And I'll prep some of my medical supplies, we need to be ready for anything." Carlisle said. I couldn't be sure, but I thought he left the room.

"Rosalie," I heard Edward. Was he begging? "Rose, please. I can't lose her. Not over something like this, not ever. You have to let me… if this hurts her, you have to."

"It is a baby, Edward. Bella will be fine, the baby will be fine. You are not going to lose her." Rosalie said coldly.

"Rose, Edward is right. You cannot let Bella die because you want a child," Alice said softly. I heard Rose hiss. "Bella is part of our family, it will hurt us all to lose her."

"This is _Bella's_ choice, Alice. She asked for my help. If I were in her position, I would hope that she would do the same for me. Esme jumped off a cliff, because her baby died. Bella would die just the same, for hers. I am not saying that she will die, I am saying that a mother's love is a powerful thing. Once a woman feels that connection, it will not break. It would destroy Bella anyways, if you were to kill her baby." Rose defended.

Content, I drifted into unconsciousness.


	2. Chapter 2

**So here's chapter two… enjoy =] review, review, review! (please).**

**Bella POV**

I woke up to a sharp pain in my stomach. I'd twisted slightly in my sleep and it felt like someone had taken my stomach and attempted to pull it back up, out my mouth. I sat up straight away, ignoring the staring vampires, and ran to the rarely used kitchen.

Rosalie was by my side within a second, brushing my hair from my face and hovering over me. I rinsed my mouth out and splashed my face with cold water. How long had I been sleeping? Everything felt clammy, all of a sudden. My hands were shaking and I felt fragile. My hand fell to my stomach, and I was shocked at the size difference.

"Edward?" I called, but he was already walking into the kitchen. I needed his soothing voice, because I felt like I'd just been hit by a truck and buried in the dirt.

"I'm here, Bella," he whispered. I looked at his face, but it wasn't a sight of comfort. His eyes were black, and they were staring at his feet. He looked… hollow. He was paler than usual, and he looked almost blue.

"What's wrong?" I whispered, reaching out for his hand. He took it, but didn't look at me, and didn't answer. "Rose?" I turned to my sister. "How long was I asleep?" I asked.

"You were out for almost thirteen hours, Bella." I looked down at my stomach again. Alice had said… or I'd thought that she'd said, that my baby would grow quickly. My stomach looked like a child's play balloon, it didn't even look like it belonged to my body. I felt queasy, and I turned back to the sink. Rose held my hair again.

"I think I need to sit down," I said. I couldn't figure out which way was right, left, or straight. I wobbled forward and stumbled. Rose caught me in her arms and slowly led me back out of the kitchen.

"Do you want to lay down upstairs, Edward has that huge bed in his room, if you would –"

"No, no. I'm fine, I'd rather stay down here," I shook my head. The last thing I needed was to draw attention to myself. And Edward already looked like he was going to fall to pieces, the best thing to do was to act like nothing had changed. Rose set me down slowly on the couch, and threw a huge white blanket over me. I shivered and laid my head back on the couch.

"Bella?" I opened my eyes to see Carlisle, "Are you hungry at all? You should eat something, regardless… but I'm surprised you haven't asked."

To answer his question my stomach grumbled, "I guess that means yes," I laughed once, but no one laughed with me. It was dead silence. "Er… what should I be eating? I don't know a lot about what to eat when you're pregnant. My mom had those books, 'What To Expect When You're Expecting', should I read those?" I asked as I yawned.

"Bella, I don't think that the woman who wrote those books would know what to be expecting under conditions such as yours…" Carlisle said slowly. I wanted to smack myself in the head.

"Oh… right. I knew that." I looked around the room. It was only Esme, Carlisle, Edward, Emmett, and Rose. Where were Alice and Jasper?

"You should probably be eating something light, nothing too flavorful. Would you like to start out with sandwich, maybe a glass of water to keep it down?"

"Sounds great," Carlisle was gone in the next second. I wiped a cold sweat from my forehead, and pulled the blanket more tightly around my shoulders, and pulled my feet up and held them to me.

"Would you like me to turn the heat up, Bella?" Rosalie asked.

I shivered once and nodded. With a meaningful glare at Edward she flitted to the other side of the room where a complicated looking heat control panel was. I wished she'd be nicer to Edward. I knew that my choice confused him, and that he didn't agree with me, her coldness didn't help him. I looked to him and pat the space on the couch next to me lightly – my whole arm felt like a ten pound weight. He took slow steps toward me, and sat down just as sluggishly.

"Edward," I took his hand and turned my body to face him. He didn't look at me. "Edward," still no response. "Edward, please try to understand." He opened his mouth slowly, but it was a second before something came out.

"I cannot understand why… you would want to die for this… thing. You said," he paused to look at me in the eye, "that you did not want children. Why now? Do you _want_ to die?" he asked through gritted teeth.

My eyes popped a little in response. "No, no, of course not! Edward, I never want to die, I never want to be without you." He waited for me to continue. "I know, that I said that I wouldn't want children, and I meant it, at the time. But now… I really love this baby, Edward. I love him, and I love you. I'll get through this, don't worry." I stroked his hand with my thumb.

"You won't make it through this Bella." His voice was numb, there was no hint of life in it, he could have been a corpse, sitting there with his eyes boring into mine.

"Don't say that," I whispered, unable to take my eyes away from his. I waited… wondering if I should tell him my plan, my reasoning. He could read my face well enough that he could see the wheels turning in my head. "I have an idea," He waited. "If… if Esme was able to become like you, when she was _so_ close to dead that nobody bothered with the hospital… well maybe if _I _could keep my heart beating… you could do it then, after the baby is out – " I stopped because his eyes grew stone cold.

"You think you're strong enough," his teeth were gritted and his voice was still lifeless. "to keep your heart beating when you're _dying_? Bella, you are a human. This… this _thing_ is going to be ten times stronger than you, we don't know what it is, what it can do. You cannot ask me to sit here and watch it hurt you. I'll go mad,"

I thought for a moment. He was too upset to consider anything I said right now, so I should just wait to try and reason with him later. But… my baby was growing quickly, so quickly that I already looked like I had a half deflated balloon under my shirt. How long could I wait before this was too far gone that Edward could look at anything with a clear mind? I huffed and laid my head back, still feeling exhausted even after sleeping for as long as I did.

I didn't get to close my eyes for long, because Carlisle was back with a tray filled with food. I'd almost forgotten that this world had anything to offer but eggs. I almost laughed at myself. I'd been eating eggs every day on the island for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I supposed that a change was good.

He set the tray down on my lap carefully, being careful not to even nudge my stomach. I examined the sandwich, trying to guess what might be inside.

"It's only mozzarella cheese and lettuce; I didn't want to push anything, so we're going to start out very bland. If you can hold this down and feel fine, then we might try something with a little bit more flavor." Carlisle said.

"Thank you, Carlisle," I said as I picked up the sandwich and slowly took a bite. I chewed and waited for some type of taste to come through… but there was nothing. It tasted like… almost like dirt. My face scrunched up and I had to concentrate hard to keep my tongue inside my mouth. "I don't know if this is me or not, but it doesn't taste… right. Like that chicken I ate on the island."

Carlisle was immediately speculative, "Try to take a few more bites, take a few sips of water. If it's just the sandwich, is there anything else you would like to try? Something familiar?"

Without thinking I blurted out "Eggs," Biting my tongue, I turned to Edward. He didn't smile, he was looking down at his hands.

"I'll make those for her, Carlisle," he said, and without hesitating he stood up and left to the kitchen. I sighed and looked down. I tried a few more bites like Carlisle said, and drank the whole glass of water. Alice came to take Edward's seat beside me and brushed some hair out of my face.

"You have got to be the only human on the _planet_ to have absolutely no sense of self preservation. You fall in love with a vampire, ride motor cycles with werewolves, jump off cliffs for fun, pick fights with armies of newborns and the Volturi, and now, you want to keep a baby that could potentially kill you. Very smart, Bella." Alice glared at me.

"I am not going to die." I said firmly. Alice stared at me like I'd just said that two plus two was six.

"This isn't going to get any better. I can see it in you now. You're shivering, you're losing your color, your appetite is messed up, and it's only going to get worse. You don't even know, Bella. This is going to be miserable for the all of us. You're going to be in physical pain, and Edward… he's going to be worse than you can imagine. I've already seen him thinking about the Volturi, do you want that to happen? You're trying too hard to keep up with all of this. This is the last stop, you won't make it out alive this time."

I waited till Alice was completely finished. I thought over everything that she said. Especially the last part. "Have you seen a vision of me dying, Alice?" I whispered and shivered a little.

She hesitated. "Well, no…"

"Then what do you mean, 'this is the last stop'? What have you seen?"

"It's not what I've seen, its what I know. No matter what you think Bella, this can only end in misery." She said grimly.

"Enough, Alice." Rosalie stood behind Alice, rigid and firm. Alice sighed and disappeared across the room. She stood frozen staring out the glass window. "Don't worry, Bella. We have everything we need right here. We won't let this get that far, this baby will come out just fine." Rose reassured me.

I nodded and turned to see Edward walking into the room with a plate of eggs in one hand and another glass of water in the other. "Let us know if this tastes any better," he said handing the plate to me. I took it eagerly, still starving.

"Thank you," I grabbed the utensil and forked up a piece of the scrambled eggs, and stuffed it into my mouth. It tasted fine while I was shoveling it in, so I took another bite, and another.

"Does it taste alright?" I heard a hint of hope in Edward's voice, so I looked up to nod.

"Tastes fine," I stuffed another piece in.

"Slowly, Bella. Eating quickly will only give you stomach pains," Carlisle said from across the room. I sighed and slowed my chewing. The small glimmer of hope was still on Edward's face, and I was desperate to see a little bit more, even if it meant pretending in the slightest that the eggs didn't taste any different than they had on the island… which they did.

Alice was right. I was in for a rough ride, but I would not die. I was determined to live for Edward, and for our baby.


End file.
